Martin, have you put enough miles on the 350 to tell us what kind of mileage you are getting. If I recall correctly, you had the carb rebuilt?
I am running a Holley EFI on my 310, a very costly conversion the previous owner did.

Martin, have you put enough miles on the 350 to tell us what kind of mileage you are getting. If I recall correctly, you had the carb rebuilt?
I am running a Holley EFI on my 310, a very costly conversion the previous owner did.

Not really Peter.

We do a lot of short journeys (we have a local state park camp ground only 4 miles from home) and the longest runs are to the second camping option we have, which is only about 35 miles away on the edge of the Cape. Means we burn a significant proportion of the the mileage just warming up.

We had Dick Paterson at Springfield Ignition rebuild the Quadrajet and it starts and runs very well, but the 350 is quite cold blooded and we have to leave the choke on for a few minutes, before blip-ping the throttle to let it idle.

We do a lot of short journeys (we have a local state park camp ground only 4 miles from home) and the longest runs are to the second camping option we have, which is only about 35 miles away on the edge of the Cape. Means we burn a significant proportion of the the mileage just warming up.

We had Dick Paterson at Springfield Ignition rebuild the Quadrajet and it starts and runs very well, but the 350 is quite cold blooded and we have to leave the choke on for a few minutes, before blip-ping the throttle to let it idle.

At the moment we are under 10mpg but I couldn't be accurate.

I suppose thats what those rusty old heat risers are for on the passenger side exhaust manifold. Does yours still have it. The class C chevy with a 350 I worked on last winter had the original vacuum controlled heat riser and it worked amazingly well.

martin
I every day I see your photos your project seems fantastic, worse now that I saw last, I'm a little jealous of your dash, incredible, you've done aluminum or stainless steel?
You can get a few pictures more closely? I can copy it?
Thank you
Herman
Ps my transmission is already in place, just missing some details and hit the road

For the first two (maybe three) years of the Argosy, the dash was very plain. The instrumentation is just a standard P-30 instrument cluster with two air vents mounted vertically to the side

The previous owners had also installed 4 small gauges between the cluster and the vents, so you can see from this photo during the rebuild there were extra holes in the dash

So really I have not changed much in the dash design; a strip of aluminum (laid over the original black strip) covers the extra holes left from the changing to the new heater/AC control (which is also moved to be more central) and to install the Kenwood head-unit (the amplifier is under the dash); a piece of dark perspex was cut to cover all the holes, and only the center hole for the cluster was re-cut. There is plenty of room for extra gauges, or I could simply replace the piece of perspex for a custom lay-out, but at the moment I am keeping it as simply as I can, which also means all the gauges are visible at the steering tilt I use..

The plastic dash was repainted; the shop laid down the cream color as a base coat, but it really brightens up the dash and matches the maple trim, so I left it that color and had the headliner painted the same.

The opening dash compartment was missing but that is where the new heater box and electric AC compressor is mounted so would have been ditched anyway.

Please feel free to copy anything you like, although I think it will be difficult if starting from a later model dash (for example like this one from the internet of a 1982).

One of the reasons my dash looks a little different is one of the PO had cut all the wires to the indicators/horn. So what I have is a 'hot-rod' clamp on indicator stalk (on the left just below the tilt lever) and a column mounted horn; means the right side of the column and then wheel again are much simpler.

Also the dash mounted rear view mirror has been removed and I have temporarily installed a GPS with rear view camera. I say temporary, as I am still trying to decide if I should go with a single camera wired from the reversing light (so would only have rear view when reversing), single camera with a switch power supply (this is what I have at the moment and turning on power to the camera, turns from GPS to rear view), or a combination of the two (two cameras; one looking down and powered from the reversing light; one switched manually to flick between GPS and rear view).

I suppose thats what those rusty old heat risers are for on the passenger side exhaust manifold. Does yours still have it. The class C chevy with a 350 I worked on last winter had the original vacuum controlled heat riser and it worked amazingly well.

I'm not 100% sure I know what you mean Peter.

I have the original cast manifolds but can't see any additional pipe work. I also checked back through the photos I took earlier in the build and can't see anything in the passenger side manifold.

Not really. This heat valve is attached at the end of the left side exhaust manifold between the manifold and the exhaust pipe. It is also retained and used between the end of the collector on the left side header and the exhaust pipe when adding headers such as the Banks System. The purpose is to restrict the exhaust flow somewhat in order to force "more" heat (exhaust gases) through the cross over tube that is part of the oem intake manifold. This cross over tube runs between both heads and under the carburetor. The purpose is to warm up the air/fuel mixture in the intake manifold plenum during a cold start and warmup of the engine. Warming up the air/fuel mixture helps to better atomize the mixture under cold startup conditions. What resembles an early EGR value is more like the PVC valve which allows crankcase "blow by" to renter the carburetor for further combustion.

Not really. This heat valve is attached at the end of the left side exhaust manifold between the manifold and the exhaust pipe. It is also retained and used between the end of the collector on the left side header and the exhaust pipe when adding headers such as the Banks System. The purpose is to restrict the exhaust flow somewhat in order to force "more" heat (exhaust gases) through the cross over tube that is part of the oem intake manifold. This cross over tube runs between both heads and under the carburetor. The purpose is to warm up the air/fuel mixture in the intake manifold plenum during a cold start and warmup of the engine. Warming up the air/fuel mixture helps to better atomize the mixture under cold startup conditions. What resembles an early EGR value is more like the PVC valve which allows crankcase "blow by" to renter the carburetor for further combustion.

Sorry Tony, just couldn't resist. (Just having fun)
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And then he claims to be a software engineer
Nothing to add to Tony's and Dean's excellent description, other than the further north you live the more you need it. Those cold starts are rough on engines.
I am not an engine expert, but I would avoid over-running the choke like the pest. In the worse case scenario, extended choke activation will run gasoline down your cylinders into the crankcase and blow it out your exhaust. But at least you would not have to add more oil

And then he claims to be a software engineer
Nothing to add to Tony's and Dean's excellent description, other than the further north you live the more you need it. Those cold starts are rough on engines.
I am not an engine expert, but I would avoid over-running the choke like the pest. In the worse case scenario, extended choke activation will run gasoline down your cylinders into the crankcase and blow it out your exhaust. But at least you would not have to add more oil